Haunted
by Bloody Toxic Penguins
Summary: True love never dies, and will wait until Judgement Day. Love will never fail, listen my love, to my tell-tale heart. I shall haunt you forever, until your sins are washed away.


**Naruto (c) Masashi Kishimoto**

**Tell-Tale Eyes (c) Leaves' Eyes**

* * *

><p>Madara could only stare at her in disbelief when she stood with the rest of the clan. Their children at her side. Betrayal...<p>

He felt utterly betrayal, and what was worse, he still loved her. Hopelessly loved her. "Why?" he breathed, his dark eyes...stolen eyes, held her onyx gaze. "Why, won't you support me in this?" he screamed, he wasn't sure if he was yelling at the clan or at her anymore. He just hurt. "Don't you see that Senju want us to be crushed! That its a part of their gambit to destroy us! To get rid of us! Why can't you see that! I'm trying to save Uchiha!" Madara clenched his fists.

"You're not trying to save anything!" a shinobi shouted. "You're just trying to further your own ambitions! That's why you took Izuna-sama's eyes!"

Madara couldn't believe those accusations... those lies! His gaze never left Yuzuki's, but he saw in her face the pain. She knew the truth about the circumstances of Izuna's blindness, she knew it all too well. She knew he didn't do it out of greed. At least, he hope she knew that. "That's a lie! He gave me his eyes! He gave them to me!" he growled, Sharingan spinning. "I'm telling you, Senju just want to see us destroyed! I'm trying protect this clan!"

"You aren't trying to protect us! You just can't accept that Hashirama-sama is the stronger shinobi than you! That people like him better than you!" the shinobi replied. Madara bit the inside of his cheek, he wanted to punish that ignorant man, but he held back. He wouldn't allow her to see him at his most ruthless. That was a part that he strove to keep hidden from her, ever since that day.

The clan murmured and shifted uncomfortably, and one by one they fell away, shaking their heads. "Stop! I order you to stop! Listen to me! Don't go!" he screamed, nails digging into his palms. "As your leader I order you not go!" Madara snarled, yet the clan left anyways. Katsuro grabbed his sister's hand and left, his shoulder's tight, any chance of him succeeding Madara gone, they wouldn't trust him to lead, not the son of Uchiha Madara. All the privileges he had since birth were gone. "Don't go! I order you not to go!" he shouted, and again he wondered who was he talking to: the clan or to her.

Yuzuki turned to follow her children, yet she held his gaze of a moment too long, a sad mournful look in her eyes, which vanished as she slid her lids over her orbs and followed her children.

Madara shook in rage, falling to his knees. He looked up at the sky and screamed.

_Tie me to a pillar  
>Feed me with your lies<br>I will still know that true love never dies  
>Have a look into my tell-tale eyes<br>_

She was dead. It was impossible, he couldn't fathom that she was dead. But then again, ironically, so was he. Yet that didn't mean he had to accept it, so he done something stupid, among the other stupid things he had done for her, and stole her body from the village.

Her lifeless face was more unnerving than the stench of death. He was use that stink, had grown up knowing it, and at one point...maybe... still reveled in it. Yet it was her expressionless face, pale as a sheet that unnerved him. She was always so expressive with her emotions, something he never was and to see her face so...empty, it was frightening, even to a battle-harden shinobi like him.

He didn't stop until he was sure that they were long gone from Konoha, far enough away from where any of those damnable Leaf shinobi could find him. He looked at the barren moor before him, a crumbling Uchiha base nearby. He slowly walked to it, remember a time when things were different, when things made sense and she still had a smile on her lips.

He stopped about a hundred yards from the base and set her body down with such tenderness that an observer would think he was a different man. With an easy leap he jumped to the top and took the banner of his clan from the ruin turret of the fort and then began wandering the nearby area, gathering stones. Devotedly, he built a cairn around his wife's body, casting a jutsu on each stone to keep anything and everything away.

He paused, thinking about what he should place in the burial mount that was apart of him. He didn't have any trinket or small item he kept on him for no reason. The only thing that came close was the Konoha headband he still kept for a reason he had forgotten about. He removed it from his forehead, and stared at the metallic surface, the etched leaf in the center. Madara bit his lip, realizing that it was that damn village that took everything from him: his brother, his wife, his children, his clan.

Everything.

And he felt the warm rush of hatred, the unholy rapture it created and the seductive embrace of Vengeance, his damned mistress.

He pulled the kunai's tip across the metal surface, cutting a deep gash into it, across the leaf. A nukenin's headband.

Traitor's mark.

Avenger's promise.

Silently, Madara folded the tails of the headed band against the back before slipping it into the tomb, under her cold dead hands. He placed the last stone before planting the tattered Uchiha banner into the mound of stones. He allowed his eyes to shift to their Mangekyou state and he could feel the touch of Izuna's chakra through his keirakukei. Amaterasu sprung to life and consumed the old base. He knew that without the familiar land mark and the jutsu he placed on Yuzuki's cairn, nobody would find this place.

Nobody but him.

For this was the most secretive of places for him. The only place where felt safe enough to shed his tears.

_Build me a coffin  
>Lock it with a million nails<br>I will still know that my love can never fail  
>Have a listen to my tell-tale heart<br>_

"I have to do this," he muttered as he looked out at the misty landscape. How many years has it been since Konoha's founding? How many years has it been since her death? He lost count. Leaned on the windowsill, breathing in the salty tang of the nearby sea. He was the Mizukage, and was carefully crafting his successor, the jinchuuriki of the Sanbi, no less.

And he plotted.

Meticulously plotted his revenge.

Everything was slowly coming together, slowly yes, but his plan would bear fruit in time. This he was sure of. He would get his revenge on the world. "I told you why a hundred times," he grumble, he didn't like the questions. "I know you don't agree with it, but I have to do it! Its just like when I had to go to war. It was horrible and unfair but I had to do it. I'm trying to protect our clan!"

The silence was pressing. The tendrils of darkness had infested heart until it was choked full of the shadowy tentacles. Save for one tiny sliver of it. The last shred of his humanity, the part that was needed for this abomination of a jutsu, that kept his soul bound to this world, frozen in the river of time. He knew she didn't like it, despite how many times he had told her why he needed to remain ageless, even if in return for endless life and youth he had to give up his power, the only part left of his strength lay in his brother's eyes. "Damn it!" he lost his temper, "How many times to I have to explain it to you! I have to do this!" he spun around, rage flooding his voice, his and Izuna's chakra swirled together as his Sharingan pun and rested on a young shinobi.

"P-Pardon...Mizukage-sama..." the shinobi muttered. Madara froze a bit, swallowed before narrowing his sanguine eyes.

"Hoshigaki," he drawled, "what do you want?"

"Just to report...sir," Kisame stepped into the circular office, "I've completed my mission."

"Good, leave the report with my aide and go rest."

"I've left my report with your aide, but...I came here to make a request," Kisame asked.

"Oh?" Madara arched his brow, turning away from the Mist-nin. "What's your request?"

"I want another mission," Kisame said.  
>"You need to rest, first," Madara replied.<p>

"I have more than enough chakra for another mission, please Mizukage-sama, I want another mission."

Madara sighed, rubbing his temples before walking up to the mahogany desk and plucked a scroll from the thousand that littered the desk. He read it briefly before dropping it on the desk, he then opened one of the drawers and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. "I have a rather...special mission for you."

_For centuries and centuries  
>We stepped on our enemies<br>To make them speak  
>To make them bleed<br>And make them plead for leniency  
>But memories cross boundaries<br>You cannot wipe out memories  
>And all those dreams<br>That cause believes  
>Delete our grieves and grimy sins<br>_

"No! I don't care!" Madara snapped, he could already feel Kushina's seal weakening. "I told you why I have to do this! I told you a thousand times, yet you won't accept the explanation I give you!" Madara shouted. He could see her, he had always been able to see her. Ever since he wept by her grave. She was so real, almost touchable, yet her image was glossy and semi-transparent. She wasn't apart of this world and wasn't suppose to be chained to the mortal realm, yet she lingered because of him.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn, Madara! Just let go! Give up this stupid quest for revenge and come join me!" Yuzuki begged, ghostly tears rolling down her cheeks. Oh, how he longed to wipe them away. "Don't destroy this family...like you've destroyed so many others."

Madara bit the inside of his cheek, his blood boiling. "Those people...who's blood stains my hands to this very day...I all killed to survive and to protect," he clenched his fists, stain burgundy due her constant haunting. Maybe it was his curse, but he could always see the ghostly blood that stained his hands and the murmured hissing whispers of all those lives he took. "And that's what I'm doing now! I'm doing this to protect the world!"

"You aren't Madara! You're so blinded by pain and revenge, that you...don't remember why you are doing this! Please! Just let go! Come join me in death!" Yuzuki begged and he knew she wanted to touch him, but they were physically apart. "You can still save yourself from eternal damnation!"

Madara tossed his head back and laughed. "Yuzuki, I told you before, I've lived in hell my entire life. I don't see the difference," he shook his head. "I'm not going to totally destroy a family, the brat will still have its father. I just want the kyuubi."

"You know very well what's it like not to have a mother!"

"That whore died when I was seven! A child raised without one parent will never no the difference!"

"Don't do this Madara! Please! I'm begging you! Don't do this!"

"I told you why I have to! Just accept it!"

"Madara," she whispered.

"What?" he snapped, eyes narrowing in anger.

"I love you," she smiled and his eyes widen in surprise.

"Fuck you! Get away from me! Stop haunting me! Leave me alone! Just leave me alone! I hate you! I hate you! I fucking hate you! Get away from me you bitch! Leave me alone! Stop haunting me! Just leave me alone!" he screamed and slapped the specter of his wife. He was surprised when heard the smack of flesh against flesh. He blinked, staring at Zetsu. He grunted and turned away. "What?" he muttered.

"Its almost time," Zetsu replied, "are you sure you can do this Madara-sama?"

"Yes," he closed his eyes, he didn't want to see Yuzuki, yet he could feel her at the very edges of his senses. "Let's go get the Kyuubi."

_Push me from a mountain  
>Watch me I can fly<br>'Cause I know where I'm going  
>Into my seventh life<br>Have a look into my tell-tale eyes  
><em>

His mask crumbled as he stared at Naruto and Sasuke. He shook, maybe from fear or anger, he wasn't sure anymore, but he wasn't about to let all his careful planning die. Not know, not when he was so close. "Sasuke!" he screamed, trying to cling to his last chess piece. "Don't listen to them! They lie! They lie! They are nothing but Senju's henchmen! Senju...they are the reason why are our clan is dead! Why your brother is dead! Your parents! They are the reason behind the Uchiha's genocide!"

"No, Madara," Sasuke shook his head. "I'm not going to let you feed more more lies!" his own Eternal Mangekyou spun in his eyes.

"I'm not lying! I'm telling you the truth!" Madara pounded his fists against the dead ground. "Shut up!" he screamed, he wasn't in the mood to hear her nagging.

Yuzuki stood, eerily between Naruto and Sasuke, her undone hair blowing in a spectral wind. "Please Madara, just end this. Its over now, you can be at peace."

"No! No! I will not end this! I won't end this! Its not over! Not until I can control the world!" Madara screamed.

"You lost," Naruto said plainly. Madara screamed in rage and frustration and heartache, his mismatched eyes wide.

"I will rule this world!" he declared.

"Madara, please stop this," Yuzuki begged, her voice choked with tears. "Please, I love you, I forgive you! I always had and always will! Please, I can't do anything more to save you, so we can be together... forever! Please end this now and you can still be with me in the next life."

"I told you a thousand fucking times! There is no next life!" Madara screamed as he stood, his hand gripping his katana and his right arm wrapping around his bleeding stomach. "I'm not afraid of hell!"

"He lost his mind, Naruto," Sasuke bent his knees in a crouch, chidori chirped along his blade, "better be ready to strike, no telling what he'll do in this state."

"Gotcha," Naruto bent his knees as well, his golden frog eyes staring back as the power of the Kyuubi ran through him, mixing with the power of a sage. "Let's do this."

"Together," Sasuke added. "We'll do this together and end the cycle of hatred."

"Right, together!"

"You both are fools! Fools, you hear me! Damned fools!" Madara shouted, a deranged look in his eyes, "All of you are fools!"

"Madara, please! I'm begging you! Don't do this! I love you! I love you! Doesn't it mean anything to you!" Yuzuki screamed. "I can't save you if you do this!"

"Shut up!" Madara shouted. "I don't want to be saved!" Madara charged.

"Now!" Sasuke shouted. He slammed his katana into Madara's chest, Naruto's own blade a few inches lower.

"Madara!" Yuzuki screamed as she watched her husband cough blood and the light slowly fading from his eyes.

"Yuzu..." he whispered before darkness took him.

_Tie me to a pillar  
>Push me from a mountain<br>Spit on my innocence  
>Sit on my freedom<br>But my soul is invisible  
>My life goes in circles<br>If my ghost caused you trouble _

Madara groaned as he opened his eyes and was greeted with a midnight sky. He felt wood on his back and he heard the gentle sloshing of water. Slowly, he sat up, resting a hand on his forehead. Groaned again, before looking around, little floating lanterns bobbed in the water, and on either bank were shrines and mystical creatures he only heard about in stories, and the miasma...it was chilling. He gulped, wondering where he was, he glanced up as the boat he was on passed under a torii, its red paint the color of blood, notches in the wood gave it the impression that it had seen its fair share of battles.

"I tried to warn you," a soft and sad voice muttered. Madara looked up and his heart clenched. She was there, dressed in a beautiful kimono and if memory served him, the very kimono he bought her as a gift. "But you refused to listen." She was only a few feet away from him and he knew he could touch her now, hold her in his arms and shower her face was kisses, all the kisses he should've given in life and then some. "This is your punishment."

"Hn," he reached for her but he was stopped short by a heavy iron chain and shackle, he looked at the chain, only to see that it was anchored to the boat. His other wrist was similar bound and so where his ankles. His eyes narrowed and he pulled at his bounds, struggling in vain to get free. He panted, looking at the ferrywoman. "Please! Please free me! I'm sorry!" he begged. He wanted to hold her so much, so damn much. "Don't do this to me! I love you! Please! I'm sorry!" he bit the inside of his cheek. "I love you!" he looked at her, begging her with his eyes.

The ferrywoman shook her head, her eyes fixed on the still distant dock. "I can't. I'm so sorry Madara, but I can't do anything for you now. Maybe...maybe if you show...that you are truly sorry for your sins, Emma-o may allow you to be reborn," she whispered.

"As a shinobi," Madara muttered bitterly.

"I'll be waiting for you," she whispered.

He looked at her with sad eyes, a lone tear rolling down his face, "Yuzuki."

* * *

><p><strong>Favorite song from Leaves' Eyes new album, Meredead. The song is Tell-Tale Eyes. <strong>

**Wow...its been a long time since I wrote a songfic like this. Normally I just put the chorus at the top and blah. But these lyrics... are just really moving and powerful. **

**I've been wanting to write a story of Madara slow descent into insanity, I had the idea that he would talk to himself, or would appear to be talking to himself, when in his mind, he's talking and seeing Yuzuki's ghost, who is begging him to change his ways before he dies. **

**The final seen I got from trying to find the Japanese romji translation for "The Gates of Hell" and wiki sucks, but it came up with a link to Hell Girl (Jikogu Shojo) and that inspired the final scene of Yuzuki ferrying Madara into Jikogu and of course he's bound and chained to the boat, unable to touch her. (Even though in Hell Girl, all his victims would be holding him down and tormenting him...but...) **

**Madara removed his mask to reveal himself to Kisame, so its within limits to guess that Kisame had to have seen him at some point as Mizukage. As for the mission that Madara gave a young ****Kisame, it had to do with the budding Akatsuki, of course Kisame didn't know it was for the Akatsuki, Madara gave him so bullshit song and dance about it being a S-rank mission and blaaah. **

**I actually teared up a bit on this. XD**

**Madara's bitterness at the possible rebirth is a call out to Japanese Buddhist belief and samurai mentality. Buddhisms says thou shalt not kill (or something similar) yet the samurai were killers. So, in order to strive for perfection/enlightenment, the samurai had to be reborn, but they were fated to be reborn as samurai. So, Madara is fated to be reborn as a shinobi. Trapped in the endless cycle of hatred and killing. **

**Emma-O is the Judge of the Dead in Hell from Japanese mythology.**

**Sanguinary Toxicity**

**R'n'R**


End file.
